The present invention relates to a device or stationary body for controllably altering the trajectory of a kicked American football.
In the early 1960s, the art of soccer-style kicking was first used in an organized college football contest by Peter Gogolak when he played college football at Cornell University. Mr. Gogolak later had a distinguished career with the Buffalo Bills and New York Football Giants while his brother, Charlie, later played college football at Princeton University followed by a professional career with teams including the Washington Redskins. Beginning in the late 60s, Jan Stenerud began his lengthy and successful career in the National Football League as a soccer-style kicker initially playing for the Kansas City Chiefs. His distinguished career earned him a spot in the National Football Hall of Frame, the first place kicker to be inducted whose only position was place kicker. Other place kickers who also prominently played other positions are also members of that exalted Hall. Lou Groza (who also was an All-Pro offensive tackle) and George Blanda (who was also an All-Pro quarterback) are the two most prominent examples.
In performing a soccer-style kick, the kicker approaches the ball from an angle as compared to the straight-on technique in which the kicker approaches the ball from directly behind it. Recognizing, this difference, Stenerud sought to develop a football tee that was particularly designed to permit effective soccer-style kickoffs. These efforts resulted in the issuance of U.S. Pat. Nos. D269,890, D277,973 and 4,418,910. Each of these patents teaches a particular orientation of upstanding prongs allegedly designed to support the football for a soccer-style kick while substantially avoiding striking of the prongs by the kicker's foot.
Invariably, contrary to the intent of the tees disclosed in the Stenerud patents a place kicker kicking a football off a Stereud tee would strike one or more of the prongs with their foot, an instant before striking the ball, thereby slightly dislodging the ball from the tee an instant before impact on the ball by the kicker's foot. As a result, the ball's orientation would be slightly altered from its orientation when first placed on the tee, thereby precluding the kicker from causing the football to travel with a uniform backward end-over-end spin. Instead, invariably, the ball would not be ideally struck. Instead, it would be struck in a manner causing the ball to flutter in an unplanned an unintended way, and with a trajectory that was unpredictable, and for a distance significantly shorter than that which was intended due to less than ideal contact with the ball.
In the early 1980's , H. Jay Spiegel began developing a line of football place kicking tees, all of which had the common characteristic of eliminating the use of prongs to support the football. Instead, each of these tees includes the characteristic of a ball receiving recess that supports the tip of the football with a surface contact and with the recess being forwardly open to allow the football to be kicked fromn the recess when impacted by the kicker's foot.
One important improvement resulting from the Spiegel tees is that, invariably, the place kicker, whether using the conventional-style or soccer-style technique, strikes the football directly without first striking the tee, thereby permitting the kicker to cleanly kick the football on its “sweet spot,” as intended, thereby causing the football to travel down field, as intended, with a lazy backward end-over-end spin. As a result, the average length of kickoffs has dramatically increased over the past several years as more and more kickers have begun using the Spiegel tees that are marketed under the Trademarks TOE-TAL® and GROUND ZERO®. As of the date of filing of this application and for preceding several years, every NFL® kicker uses Spiegel's 1″ GROUND ZERO® tee. Spiegel has been awarded numerous U.S. patents as well as corresponding foreign patents for the Spiegel tees. The U.S. patents include U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,655,453; 4,657,252; D291,714; D305,448; D372,062; D383,816; D383,817; D392,705; and 6,309,316.
While the Spiegel GROUND ZERO® and TOE-TAL® tees permit the place kicker to cleanly strike the football with his or her foot, sometimes a kicker wishes to engage in trickery in an attempt to fool the receiving team as to the trajectory, location and spin that the football will engage in while traveling through the air down the field. The GROUND ZERO® ONSIDE™ tee, covered by U.S. Pat. No. 6,309,316, includes a peripheral forward notch designed to support the football with its tip on the ground and leaning against the side wall of the tee to enhance the reproducibility of onside and squib kicks. This tee was first used in the 2004 Gator Bowl. While the additional notch in the GROUND ZERO® ONSIDE™ tee effectively supports the football for onside and squib kicks, it would be desirable if an additional feature could be employed to permit controllable adjustment of the trajectory and spin of the football without advance warning being given to the receiving team. It is with this thought in mind that the present invention was developed.